Wyoming is the least populated state in the United States. There runs the saying that there are more cows than people. Perhaps that sense of loneliness of the individual, in a rural world, makes it a very conservative and religious territory.
In the political context where the right to abortion has become proof of the division of the country between the right and progressives, it is not surprising that the governor of Wyoming, the Republican Mark Gordon, put his signature on the law that converts to his state in the first US to ban the abortion pill.
There is an open war for this pill. NARAL Pro-Choice America, a nonprofit organization that fights abortion restrictions, called its move to ban anti-abortion medication “the first of its kind” pending more.
Under the new law, it will be illegal to “prescribe, administer, distribute, sell or use any medication for the purpose of provoking an abortion.” Doctors or anyone found guilty can be punished with up to six months in jail and fines of up to $9,000.
However, there is the exception of those who resort to the drug for reasons of a criminal nature (rape). In addition, access is allowed if necessary in cases of natural abortions.
Medication to induce the termination of pregnancy, which accounts for around 50% of abortions in the United States, has become increasingly controversial since the Supreme Court last June annulled the law that allowed abortion at the national level and left it in the hands of the states.
Precisely at this time, we are waiting for a judge in Amarillo (Texas), appointed by President Trump, to order the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to withdraw this medication nationwide for accepting the claim of ultra groups that it was little analyzed in its day. That happened in the year 2000 and there are no known serious cases of side effects. If the judge rules in favor of withdrawal, that decision would affect all states, including those where abortion is legal, and would be the first step in a long legal dispute.
Abortion advocates expressed dismay at measures like Wyoming’s. Antonio Serrano, director of American Civil Liberties, argued that it should be the health of the people, not politicians, that should guide important medical decisions, abortion among others.
Governor Gordon confessed that he signed the law, which is scheduled to enter into force on July 1, because in this way it reinforces the “protections for the unborn.”
But Gordon did a two for one. On Friday, the same day he signed the anti-pill law, the governor allowed a measure to go into effect that effectively bans abortion in Wyoming.
This regulation is expected to be in place this Sunday and its effect is that it prevents the termination of pregnancy in almost all circumstances, making it a felony to provide this practice. “I have acted without bias, and after much prayer, to allow these two bills to become law,” Gordon wrote in a letter to the secretary of state.
The two laws are expected to go to court by abortion providers, who will seek to have these regulations struck down while these matters continue their judicial journey.
A prominent abortion rights advocate stressed that Wyoming’s explicit ban on pills is unique. “There is no stone that anti-abortion extremists leave unturned as they do everything possible to ensure that abortion is banned throughout the country,” NARAL president Mini Timmaraju said in a statement on Saturday. “What has happened in Wyoming is proof of all this,” she added.
